Routing operations in Fort Worth, Texas

Routing operations had to be carried out in order to prepare the ground for the construction of the new Eagle Mountain High School, including a campus and the associated sports facilities. Lead contractor Hammett Excavation chose a Wirtgen 220 SMi Surface Miner to take on the job, as the high productivity and versatility of the machine enable considerably faster and more cost-efficient project completion – pretty much the best decision the Texans could have made.

Conventional methods such as ripping and digging with an excavator wouldn’t have been able to deal with such hard rock. Drilling and blasting also involves a whole load of restrictions and regulations that can make projects impractical and unnecessarily costly. These would have been the only alternatives to the capabilities of the Wirtgen Surface Miner for tackling the challenging geotechnical characteristics of the site. The cost efficient, fast, and reliable method of cutting and crushing rock and stone with a Wirtgen Surface Miner proved to be far superior to any other excavation method.

First Use of a Surface Miner by Hammett Excavation

The use of a Surface Miner for the job is a first for Hammett Excavation. Although generally used for the extraction of mineral resources, the power-packed 220 SMi from Wirtgen also reveals its strengths in routing operations, where it reliably crunches its way through even the hardest layers of rock and stone on construction sites. That means that it has the best credentials for reliably and efficiently cutting and removing the hard layers of limestone with occasionally interbedding of blueschist* and slate on the site of the new high school project in Fort Worth.

*Blueschist is an extremely hard rock whose removal presented the most challenging aspect of the work.

The suggestion to invest in this innovative technology came from project manager Derek Billiot, who had already gathered some experience in mineral extraction by cutting. At first, Gaylon Hammett, President of Hammett Excavation, had his reservations, but quickly became convinced of the outstanding capabilities of the machine. The cutting capabilities of the Wirtgen Surface Miner, which enable it to cope with even the hardest layers of rock made the purchase of the unit a no brainer and guaranteed the satisfaction of the construction contractor. His conclusion, “We would never have been able to get the job done without the Surface Miner.” The initial machine configuration by Wirtgen Customer Support was quickly completed without any problems, and any final adjustments required were taken care of on the spot. Using the machine enabled Gaylon Hammett to complete the entire project ahead of the planned delivery deadline and simultaneously guaranteed the successful and profitable finalization of the job. Today, the contractor is already thinking about adding a second machine to his fleet.